Industry insights from executives themselves

Enterprise Excellence

November 25, 2020

Unlocking Unprecedented Value with Circular Busine...

The impact of waste, carbon and pollution from industry is now a primary concern. For... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

September 03, 2020

Lean and Recovery After the Coronavirus Outbreak

Jeff Liker is a 13 times Shingo Prize winner for Research Excellence, known around the... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 27, 2020

4 Reasons Why You Should Move Your Next Video Call...

It’s no secret that businesses worldwide have been forced to find new ways of working.... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 11, 2020

How Electrolux Professional Achieved Strategic Res...

Never before in history have companies all over the world and in every conceivable industry... - Read More

Industry 4.0

July 28, 2020

How Toyota Helps Customers Turn Information into I...

Toyota Material Handling Europe helps businesses of all sizes across Europe meet today’s material handling... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 22, 2020

Time to Transform the Way we Work

The mass exodus has begun. During the COVID-19 crisis, hundreds of millions of office workers... - Read More

Industry 4.0

July 13, 2020

Questions on Digital Business Models in Post-Coron...

Frank Piller, a professor at Aachen University and co-director of the Institute for Technology and... - Read More

Industry 4.0

June 10, 2020

The Future of Digital Business Models for Industry...

Position paper by the expert group "Digital Business Models for Industrie 4.0" (AG 6) of... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

June 02, 2020

How to Deploy Hoshin Kanri Successfully

With businesses facing unprecedented challenges in modern times, being able to plan a direction for... - Read More

Industry 4.0

May 08, 2020

Tackling COVID-19 with Additive Manufacturing

With businesses all over the globe facing unprecedented manufacturing disruption, and healthcare concerns becoming the... - Read More

Industry 4.0

April 27, 2020

Managing Long-term Production Disruption

The below post is a summary of the Q&A that took place on the 15th... - Read More

Industry 4.0

April 15, 2020

How Tetra Pak Successfully Integrated Smart Manufa...

Founded in 1951, Tetra Pak was born from a single innovation. The first of its... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

April 06, 2020

Solving the COVID-19 Ventilator Shortage

This is a republication of an article published in the World Economic Forum Agenda, April 2,... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

March 26, 2020

Structuring your innovation process in pursuit of ...

Q: How to evaluate innovation impact at the ideation stage? This is a critical part... - Read More

The Leadership Network Learning Provider of the Year

Innovation Excellence

March 25, 2020

The Leadership Network wins an award at the Learni...

To win a Learning Provider of the Year award means joining a prestigious and exclusive... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

March 18, 2020

Leading teams with empathy - the Toyota way

Toyota is a brand that embodies production precision driven by meticulous management. Synonymous with excellence,... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

March 12, 2020

Navigating your Supply Chain Digitalisation Strategy

The below post is a summary of the Q&A that took place on the 14th February... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

March 04, 2020

Jim Shaw joins the immersive learning revolution

The Leadership Network® (TLN) announced today the appointment of the former Chief Digital Officer at... - Read More

Industry 4.0

March 02, 2020

How Leading Manufacturers Overcome Smart Factory I...

Three case studies from Industry 4.0 pioneers in Germany The rapid development of sophisticated Industrial... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

February 19, 2020

5 Industries That will be Turned Upside Down Over ...

Can you remember the top 15 companies of 2000? How about 2010? Last year, even?... - Read More

Internationalising the Toyota Production System (TPS)

Enterprise Excellence

February 11, 2020

Scaling the Lean mindset.

When Toyota Material Handling joined forces with European corporation BT Industries, they faced the challenge... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

December 12, 2019

When the Sensei goes away.

Thousands of businesses in the West strive to replicate Toyota’s culture of operational excellence into... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

December 04, 2019

In conversation with a former Chief Digital Office...

50% of the traditional companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since 2000. One of... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 25, 2019

In conversation with Managing Director at Hugo Boss

Joachim has been on the digital transformation journey for over three years now at his... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 18, 2019

GEMBA® by The Leadership Network named finalist f...

The Leadership Network (TLN) announced today that their virtual reality learning platform GEMBA® has been... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 12, 2019

How to integrate Lean management with digital tran...

Q: How to combine organic Lean with top-down digitalization initiatives? This question comes up very... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 07, 2019

The Leadership Network® named a finalist for the ...

The Leadership Network (TLN) announced today that it has been shortlisted as a finalist for... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 01, 2019

Q&A with Fabrizio: How to reorganise your company ...

Fabrizio Salvador is known around the world as a leading expert in operations management. He... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

October 16, 2019

How Amazon and Nissan make data science their key ...

Big data and data science is all over the place from the last decade and... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 10, 2019

Busting Lean Myths with Jeff Liker

Myth 1: Lean is primarily about doing more with less, which means reducing cost. It’s... - Read More

Industry 4.0

October 03, 2019

A 4-step roadmap for creating digitally-enabled or...

Many managers struggle to see a clear path towards creating digitally -enabled organizations. It is... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

September 26, 2019

Caterpillar’s Five Proven Steps to Digital Excellence

Everyone will agree by now that digital transformation cannot be treated as just another project... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

September 11, 2019

Agility, Chinese Style

Most Western companies have a functional/hierarchical structure. This was ideal for running a business efficiently in... - Read More

Industry 4.0

September 04, 2019

Q&A with Frank Piller: Skills required of managers...

In the second part of the Q&A series, addressing executive challenges on leading the Factory... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 27, 2019

Is the iPhone the best project in history?

If you're thinking about launching a strategic project, or are currently doing so, I strongly... - Read More

Industry 4.0

August 20, 2019

Q&A with Frank Piller: Driving digital transformat...

How far should we go in connecting processes and smart technology and what would the... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 14, 2019

How to fail faster – and why you should

We’ve all heard the phrase “fail fast,” especially if we’re familiar with the agile approach.... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

August 08, 2019

Q&A with Jeffrey Liker Part II: How to achieve Lea...

Q: What is the impact of the new ways of reducing hierarchy to be more... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

July 31, 2019

Q&A with Jeffrey Liker: How to get your management...

Jeff Liker is a 13 times a Shingo Prize winner for Research Excellence. He is... - Read More

Industry 4.0

July 25, 2019

Placing customers at the heart of transformation w...

With digitalization allowing companies to accelerate the pace of innovation and making agility a key... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

July 18, 2019

How Electrolux Achieved 60% Reduction in Co2 Emissions

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change set the world a clear target: we must... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 09, 2019

What WIRED's former editor discovered on a global ...

I recently wrote a book Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds. The book... - Read More

Industry 4.0

July 03, 2019

How to Inspire Your Teams to Change When Feedback ...

There are common misconceptions in the workplace around the definition and value of feedback. Feedback... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

June 24, 2019

How to apply Lean in Non-Production Functions

This is an introductory article about applying Lean to Non-Production workplaces, including Office work. To... - Read More

Industry 4.0

June 13, 2019

Innovation Brief Part 2: Top servitization case studies

In the second part of my ‘innovation brief’, I share insights on next-generation technologies and... - Read More

Industry 4.0

June 06, 2019

Four case studies on how digitalisation is transfo...

In this short video, Frank Piller, an award-winning professor and future manufacturing expert, will share... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

May 31, 2019

An insight into the ultimate Lean Tour in Japan wi...

The Leadership Network, along with 21 global Lean leaders, travelled across 3 cities in Japan... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

May 27, 2019

Innovation Brief by Jim Shaw - Chief Digital Offic...

Having attended quite a few major events in the digital space, I have managed to... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

May 20, 2019

Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain Executive’s Scout...

Israel is the Start-Up Nation Silicon Wadi (Wadi means Valley in Arabic) is an area... - Read More

Industry 4.0

May 08, 2019

Addressing a lack of skill base in your company

In the third and last blog post within the “Tackling your Industry 4.0 challenges” series,... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

May 01, 2019

Five Proven Steps for Driving Digital Transformation

Every single industry has a “digital destiny” – an inevitable and unavoidable future that will... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

April 24, 2019

What’s Ahead For Supply Chain Executives In 2019?

“It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future” so said Danish physicist Niels Bohr... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

April 16, 2019

Now Unlearn Everything that Made you Successful

A changing basis of competition An organism’s fitness for natural selection determines how successfully it... - Read More

Industry 4.0

April 10, 2019

How Ford optimises design process with VR

Companies such as Ford are leveraging VR as a collaboration tool to enable better and... - Read More

Industry 4.0

April 03, 2019

Clarify your Industry 4.0 value proposition

In the second blog post within the “Tackling your Industry 4.0 challenges” series, Frank Piller,... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

March 27, 2019

How Toyota Kata can transform your lean deployment

The Toyota Way was defined in an internal 2001 Toyota document as continuous improvement and... - Read More

Industry 4.0

March 19, 2019

Voice opportunities beyond the smart speaker

There is a shift taking place today in how humans interact with technology that will... - Read More

Industry 4.0

March 13, 2019

Your guide to piloting machine learning

In today’s video in the Machine Learning myth buster series, I’m covering the following myths:... - Read More

Industry 4.0

March 05, 2019

How to scale intra-factory data connections in you...

What are the challenges when implementing Industry 4.0? It’s one of the most common questions... - Read More

Industry 4.0

February 25, 2019

Five key steps to get a real ROI in your digital t...

During November, I traveled far and wide, attending some of the leading manufacturing events across... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

February 11, 2019

Teaching a Proud Japanese Company New Tricks of Lean

Teaching a Proud Japanese Company New Tricks of Lean: Going Deep before Going Wide Jeffrey... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

February 05, 2019

Want to think like Amazon? Start from the receipt

What’s in a receipt? Hardly seems like a topic of competitive advantage, operational excellence, customer... - Read More

predictive innovation in product development

Industry 4.0

January 29, 2019

How to develop billion-dollar product opportunities

Internet of Things and Big Data have all changed manufacturing and marketing functions. In manufacturing,... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

January 22, 2019

Optimise your design thinking process with LEGO SE...

By Robert Rasmussen, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY EXPERT and former Head of R&D at LEGO Co-author... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

January 16, 2019

How to use Kata to develop scientific thinking

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) has long been recognised as a foundation of any successful improvement process. Nevertheless,... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

January 08, 2019

Alibaba’s 100% growth rate to world dominance

The Leadership Network sat down with Xuan Jin, Lead Solutions Architect at Alibaba Cloud, to... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

December 20, 2018

The most interesting retail experiment that no-one...

The LEGO Dead Ocean Strategy Near my home in Philadelphia, LEGO just opened its tenth... - Read More

solution to an inconsistent Lean approach

Enterprise Excellence

December 11, 2018

Virtual reality as a solution to an inconsistent L...

In the final video of the series, Peter Hines, an award-winning Lean expert, goes over... - Read More

Industry 4.0

December 03, 2018

How to prepare your dataset for machine learning?

In the latest video, Tim Eschert, machine learning expert, goes over the following two myths... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

November 26, 2018

Is OEE a Useful Key Performance Indicator?

Total Productive Maintenance (TPS) has become the industry standard for maintaining equipment in the best... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 22, 2018

Benchmark your Industry 4.0 Transformation against...

London, United Kingdom – 14 Nov. 2018 – Today, The Leadership Network has announced its... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 19, 2018

Building Your Digital Strategy – The Amazon Way

An Overview of The Amazon Way on IoT How is digital disruption impacting your industry? ... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 12, 2018

An Open Letter to Gibson’s New CEO

Fifty years ago, when Eric Clapton played lead guitar on the Beatles’ “While My Guitar... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 05, 2018

What’s the difference between Six Sigma, Data An...

Tim Eschert’s new myth buster series on Machine Learning addresses the differences between Six Sigma,... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

October 30, 2018

Alibaba helps executives make their digital transf...

London, United Kingdom – 22 October 2018 – Today, The Leadership Network has announced its... - Read More

Industry 4.0

October 23, 2018

Utilising the benefits of 3D printing

A radical shift in manufacturing In 2012, the Economist brought a special report, hailing 3D... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 16, 2018

The power of exceptional greens

Abel Martínez is a Global Operational Excellence Director at JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts). Abel has... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 10, 2018

How to lead a global lean transformation and make ...

Leading a global lean transformation programme is not easy. In fact, 90% of lean transformations... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

October 03, 2018

Death on the High Street? How e-commerce and socia...

Western society is on the verge of a revolution in the way we shop. The... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

September 24, 2018

How Nestlé executives drive Innovation and Contin...

Nestlé’s Product Technology Centre (PTC) in York is at the forefront of Confectionery Research and... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

September 19, 2018

The Rise and Role of the Chief Digital Officer

To have or have not? Do companies really need to appoint a CDO – a... - Read More

emotional stages of organizational change

Enterprise Excellence

September 12, 2018

Why change is like grieving – and grieving is li...

Think about it. The process we call grieving is one of the most intense emotional... - Read More

Industry 4.0

September 05, 2018

Your framework for a successful Industry 4.0 busin...

If you live in Germany, you must have seen electric DHL delivery car, produced by... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

August 23, 2018

Top 5 Lean culture implementation challenges addressed

Watch Peter Hines address top challenges senior executives struggle with on their journey to Lean... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

August 17, 2018

Change – the Final Frontier (with apologies to S...

I have had the privilege of working at some exceptional companies – companies that aspired... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

August 09, 2018

Exclusive insights on the Toyota Way from Jeff Liker

You have authored or co-authored over 85 articles and book chapters and 15 books on... - Read More

How to reduce cost with machine learning

Industry 4.0

August 01, 2018

How to reduce cost with machine learning: case study

Industrial Manufacturing Falling Behind When we look at the buzzwords of the Industry 4.0 world,... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

July 24, 2018

So what exactly is Lean in Lean Product Development?

A couple of stories… When I was a very young lad, I worked in product... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 16, 2018

How to catalyse radical innovation and redefine th...

I define radical innovation as a serendipitous result of many self-organizing, interdependent employees learning from... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 10, 2018

Your guide to the IoT-enabled Outcome-Based Busine...

I’ve worked in the project-management business essentially my entire career, leading teams of people to... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

July 03, 2018

How to implement Lean in five steps

The term Lean Production was first used in 1990 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)... - Read More

Nokia manufacturing Factory of the Future

Industry 4.0

June 28, 2018

Nokia – Still Connecting People

Today, it’s hard to imagine a world without Internet connectivity. We stand at the edge... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

June 26, 2018

What is the science in Lean?

Co-authored by Mike Rother - an American researcher who introduced the widespread business practices of... - Read More

Industry 4.0

June 18, 2018

Platforms for the industrial IoT: choosing the ope...

The platform economy is a central topic today in all economic sectors - but above... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

June 12, 2018

The secret problem solving weapon of Lean organiza...

Engineers are bred to solve problems. From the first day of school, it is part... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

June 06, 2018

Former Amazon Executive on How to Lead Your IoT St...

Lack of expertise to lead digitisation initiatives, employee pushback and no overarching strategy for digitisation... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

June 01, 2018

Lessons from LEGO: What do you do when your curren...

On March 6, LEGO announced its results for 2017. Sales declined by 8% and profits... - Read More

Industry 4.0

May 29, 2018

How to succeed at digital transformation

How to Succeed at Digital Transformation: Lessons from Chief Information Officer of GE Aviation David... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

May 22, 2018

Why worry about Lean if we can innovate like Tesla?

I am a huge Elon Musk fan. Coolest engineer ever. Honestly, he makes Tony Stark... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

May 17, 2018

We Are All In The Supply Chain Business

The ongoing transformation of our industrial supply chain is hardly the first of its kind.... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

May 14, 2018

How to Implement Data-Driven Supply Chain and Incr...

In a recent study from Accenture, 97 percent of the senior executives surveyed see great... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

May 08, 2018

Lessons from Toyota: How to do a Gemba Walk and Wh...

The Purpose of Gemba Walks I recall interviewing executives in a conference room at Toyota’s... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

April 30, 2018

10 Rules Behind Amazon’s Success You Can Use on ...

Since publishing my book The Amazon Way in June 2014, I’ve collaborated with hundreds of... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

April 27, 2018

Inside Alibaba - Jack Ma's Digital Innovation Factory

Artificial intelligence. Augmented reality. Facial recognition. Connected “internet” vehicles. Global virtual marketplaces. App-based digital payment... - Read More

Two most fundamental principles of Lean Product Development are Reduction of Waste, and the Deming Circle.

Enterprise Excellence

April 24, 2018

Taking the first step: getting started on your Lea...

It’s intimidating. The time never seems to be right. There is always a crisis or... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

April 17, 2018

How to Win in the Innovation Economy

Rowan Gibson, described by Forbes as ‘one of the most recognized thought leaders in business... - Read More

Industry 4.0

April 13, 2018

Is your business model Industry 4.0-ready?

Industry 4.0 is often discussed from a technological perspective of machine learning, algorithms, smart sensors,... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

April 12, 2018

How to Implement Lean as a Culture and Workflow

Jeffrey shares his two decades worth of insights, captured in his international bestseller ‘The Toyota... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 17, 2016

Innovation The Dyson Way

Sir James Dyson is lauded as one of the greatest innovators of our time, but... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 07, 2016

5 Sustainable Innovation Practices that Saved LEGO

Every second, seven boxes of LEGO are sold. For every person in the world, there... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

November 03, 2016

Deconstructing Toyota's success

Since its founding in 1937, Toyota has challenged the status quo to influence the future... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 31, 2016

How Nike Used Lean to Solve its Sweatshop Problem

Businesses typically adopt Lean to streamline production and improve efficiency, but recent research from MIT... - Read More

Industry 4.0

October 26, 2016

Natural Selection: The Key to Festo’s Brand-Driv...

Festo is a globally operating, independent family enterprise that supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology,... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

October 19, 2016

Marmitegate and Exploding Phones: What’s Going o...

Disagreements between suppliers and retailers are relatively common, but not one that cuts off the... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

October 17, 2016

We Need A New Supply Chain Management Definition

Delivering the right product, at the right place, at the right time. This age-old challenge... - Read More

Industry 4.0

October 05, 2016

How Disney Creates Digital Magic with Big Data

For over 90 years, Disney has prided itself on producing magical guest experiences that few... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

September 05, 2016

Five Lean Myths and the Reality of Thinking Lean

You can only imagine how exciting it was for industrial engineers and researchers when they were... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 19, 2015

Is Innovation achieved through Kaizen?

The Japanese term Kaizen made popular by Toyota is a philosophy that assumes every aspect... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

October 15, 2015

3 Reasons Why Gemba Walks Drive Innovation

The Japanese word Gemba, made popular by Toyota and used throughout the manufacturing industries, translates to... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

October 08, 2015

The Substitutes Threat

Try to picture this scenario. A traffic technology company invests in a technology, where intelligent... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 08, 2015

How to sustain Lean systems in your business

The answer is not as esoteric and arcane as you might imagine. It is actually... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 31, 2015

Addition By Subtraction Works

Before you can add, you must subtract. Canada's parliament has just enacted that it believes... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 31, 2015

The Importance of Recognition

Of all the tools and tricks in the leaders' tool bag, none is quite as... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 31, 2015

Experiment to Get Support for Your Innovative Ideas

Trying to do things differently or to do different things within an organization is hard.... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 25, 2015

How to Keep Coaching Simple

If coaching is to succeed, it must be simple and specific. That's why I am... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 21, 2015

Optionality as a disruption strategy

Executives responsible for responding to disruption need to learn a new language. I say this... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 21, 2015

Do you Know Your Disruption From Your Innovation?

If you want a rundown on what the experts think of innovation then read the... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 21, 2015

Don't Be Afraid of Upsetting People - A Negative R...

South Park is a highly successful cartoon sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

August 20, 2015

From Supply Chain to Value Networks

Introduction Supply Chain Management has become a must in most multinationals; this was not the... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 20, 2015

Ascending the Mount Everest of Leadership on a Dai...

Since the time of early humans, the influence exerted by leaders like kings, queens, military... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 31, 2015

The Innovation Phrases We Hate the Most

The term itself, innovation - can alienate many people, but even within the professional innovation... - Read More